Our first sight of this magnificent monument was breathtaking. It was the first U.S. National Monument, established in 1906 by Teddy Roosevelt. The monument encompasses 1347 acres and the tower stands 867 feet tall, base to summit. It's 5112 feet above sea level.
Formation theories vary but most agree it began as magma buried beneath the earth's surface. It cooled underground and was later exposed by erosion. Today it continues to erode as evidenced by a large boulder field of broken columns at the base of the tower. And speaking of columns, these formations are striking and occur only in igneous rocks.
The Visitor Center provides a number of Native American stories about the tower, the most often told one being that girls were out to play and were chased by bears. The girls climbed to the top of a rock and prayed to the Great Spirit to save them. The Great Spirit made the rock rise and when the bears tried to climb it they left deep claw marks in the sides of the tower.
Now it was time to walk around the tower. And it looked very doable for us.
The view from the "back" of the tower was spectacular.
Hundreds of climbers scale the rock walls every summer. There are plenty of stories of fatalities, rescues, and a man who parachuted to the top and had to be rescued. We saw a few climbers on our walk.
I thought I was almost around the tower when I saw this sign and my heart sank. In my defense, it was really hot and the path had elevation changes 😉
So I carried on (hubby was 1/4 mile back), met an unfriendly ranger doing some warning painting, and finally made it back around.
As we drove away, we found some prairie dogs and pulled over to watch them. The previously mentioned ranger pulled up next to us and said we couldn't do that. Alrighty then, we moved on. Devil's Tower may have the most unfriendly ranger we've ever encountered but it's one of the coolest places we've ever visited.
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